The 1975’s 'Notes On A Conditional Form': release date, track list, album art and everything you need to know
11 June 2019, 10:33
The 1975 are hard at work on their fourth album 'Notes On A Conditional Form'. But when will it be released? What songs will be on the album? What will the album artwork look like?
The 1975 hadn’t even finished work on their most recent album, A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships, when they started talking about their fourth record. Their last album came out last November but the band have been speaking for a while now about how they plan to release a follow-up album fairly quickly, as part of their ‘Music For Cars’ era.
Later, they confirmed that album would be called Notes On A Conditional Form. Since then, they’ve been dropping clues on social media and in interviews about what the album will sound like, what the songs will be called and, importantly, when we can expect to actually hear it.
Here’s everything we know about the album so far...
Is there a release date yet for the album?
The band have teased various release dates for the album, but it's now been officially confirmed for 21st February 2020 and will reportedly be 22 tracks long - their longest album yet.
Speaking to Music Week recently, the band's manager Jamie Oborne revealed that we'll hear new music from the album before Reading & Leeds festivals, which take place at the end of August.
“The record is coming together. We’ve had this recording studio tour bus on the American tour which has been great for productivity…The boys have been constantly working. I can’t say exactly when it will come, there are a few elements coming together, but we will be releasing music before Reading.” He also revealed that the band are returning to the same studio in Oxford where they made 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'.
He added: “We’ve had a lot of back and forth about whether we drop the whole thing as a project. As always with The 1975, we have a pool of possibilities and then Matthew Healy pulls the rug from under our feet at the last minute! The natural first statement always emerges. We’re just figuring out what direction to take it at the moment.”
We’re getting new music in August guys lets throw a party pic.twitter.com/L7fMJy4PSp
— jessica ｡.✧ (@ZAYNIE1975) June 5, 2019
What songs will be on the album?
There might not be a full official tracklist yet, but we do have some news on some songs that could be on the record.
Following a social media blackout, the band released their first song from the album in July, the self-titled 'The 1975' and, just like their other songs of the same name on their previous albums, it will be the opener of the record. 'The 1975' is a collaboration with teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and is a spoken word piece about how we need to act now to cut back on greenhouse gases: "We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change. And it has to start today," she says.
'The 1975' is the only officially confirmed song from the album so far, but the band have spoken about other possible songs that might make it on there.
A countdown on the band's website seems to suggest a new song called 'People' will be out on 22nd August.
Matty re-posted a video of him playing an acoustic guitar and playing a song called ‘Jesus christ 2005 god bless america’ back in April and speaking to Dazed last year, he also talked about two tracks set to feature on the album.
The first, ‘Frail State of Mind’ explores social anxiety. ”[It’s a] UK garage, sad, Burial kind of thing about social anxiety, you know, going out,” he explained. “I’m better at it happening. Me and you sitting down and having a conversation, than thinking about going to do the conversation. The social event’s normally always fine, but the build up to it, I hate it.”
The second, ‘The Birthday Party’, he described as being about the “interesting social minutiae of house parties.” Matty explained: “I was gonna do a song that was like, ‘What it was like to be at a house party at 20, 25, and 29’. But then I realised I don’t need to do it, I just need to do what it’s like now, because my career has been what it’s been like to be at a house party at 20, 25, and 29. I think (the album will) be similar in the way that Brief Inquiry can be quite deconstructed – there’s big, bombastic elements to it, but it’s a very stripped, pure version of The 1975.”
MORE: 17 hidden messages you might have missed in the 'Sincerity Is Scary' video
He also suggested on Twitter that a song ‘28’, originally performed under the band’s old name ‘Drive Like I Do’, would be included on the album.
But as to what the record will actually sound like, we don’t have too many clues for now. Matty did however say in a recent Reddit AMA that the new record sounded “Intimate. Very happy at times. Very not happy at times” and joked that it was “kind of” an emo record, which sounds pretty good to us.
Notes https://t.co/b5wWdXtQ7j
— matty (@Truman_Black) April 18, 2019
Have the band shared any lyrics from the new album yet?
Matty mentioned in an interview that the new album features one of his “best lyrics ever” and, though we can’t be sure what lyric he’s referring to there, a few potential lyrics from the album have been posted by the band on social media.
Matty has posted two photos containing what seem to be lyrics to Instagram. The first: “People like people they want alive people the young surprise people stop fucking with the kids”, which obviously makes *loads* of grammatical sense. The second: “I don’t like going outside so bring me everything here”.
How is the album connected to ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’?
Both albums fall under the band’s ‘Music For Cars’ era, so some fans have speculated that the two albums will be linked in some way. Matty has pretty much binned that theory though, explaining: “My only fear is that because I’ve put this umbrella over both albums, they’ll be perceived as intrinsically connected. But that was never my intention; I’m just making records. I’ve gotta always want to be making my masterpiece. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
Do we know what the album artwork will be?
Yes! It looks like this:
// W A K E U P W A K E U P W A K E U P // L O V E pic.twitter.com/Maq3dvhUAT
— Notes On A Conditional Form (@conditionalform) July 24, 2019
